After yet another night of being awakened by drunk people, I've checked myself into a fairly decent hotel to get some sleep. The funny thing was, a good majority of the people on my crew felt that I should not have to spend money on a hotel to get some sleep and that it was my home too and I should be able to sleep just fine at home. Their chivalry did not make it to 1:45am. Once again, the giggling and the cooking started, but this time it was accentuated with several people saying "sshhhhh!". I gave up.
After breakfast I went back to my room and went on hotels.com to find a hotel that didn't cost too much, but also had amazingly comfortable beds. I decided on the Country Inns and Suites. You know if they have big heavy down comforters then the bed is comfortable too. They've got an indoor pool and jacuzzi and a fitness center. The staff is very friendly.
Years ago when I couldn't sleep, I didn't fight it too much. I simply got out of bed and found something else to do. And if I got tired during the day, I'd just drink more coffee. I found a book for my kindle called Restful Insomnia that didn't promise to solve my sleep problems, but would make me feel rested despite not sleeping. I put it on my wishlist and basically forgot about it. Every night that I didn't sleep I would think about it.
Yesterday I checked in to my hotel completely exhausted. I had an overwhelming need to fall asleep and instead of getting coffee, I waited until it was time to check in, closed the black out curtains and got into bed. I snuggled into the down pillows and concentrated on sleep. After about 20-30 minutes, I began to fade off. Then my arm jerked and shot out from underneath my pillow and into the empty room. Damn it. Ok, I thought. No big deal. I'll try again.
I closed my eyes, tried to focus on nothing at all and let my eyes soften into my skull. Another 15 minutes later I was drifting off into sleep and the hotel phone next to my bed rang and jerked me out of sleep yet again. Are you kidding me? Who on earth knows I'm here?! I picked up the phone and it was the guy down at the front desk wanting to know if everything was acceptable in my room. Jeezo.
After a brief conversation, I hung up the phone and tried to go back to sleep. I wasn't laying there long before I decided it wasn't going to happen. So I got up and made a cup of coffee and watched a terrible love story (Something Borrowed...I don't recommend it) before going out to meet some of my crew for dinner at Frankie Bones.
My sleep last night was a little broken, but every time I woke up, I fell back to sleep. No one woke me up at 2am, I wasn't josteled awake by heater noises and the bed didn't creak and squeak every time I moved. My hand towel in the bathroom is also shaped like a swan.
I have to check out by 11am, which is a bummer. I'm definately over living with 16 other people (we lost one to injury, it used to be 17 other people). I miss having my own home with a comfortable bed and a more quiet means of heating the house. The heater in my room sounds like a diesel truck starting up every 10 minutes or so.
Oh yeah, so after the front desk guy woke me up yesterday I decided to purchase the book Restful Insomnia. I'm a quarter of the way through it and not totally convinced that this lady can teach me how insomnia is actually a blessing. I guess we'll see.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
2am
It's 2 in the morning on Sunday and I've been awakened by a crowd of I'd say about 4-5 drunk people by the sound of it. My bedroom shares a wall with the kitchen which is a popular hangout for those returning home from the bars. The walls are very thin and the kitchen has a way of bringing out the echo in every little sound, especially if no one is trying to be quiet, everything is funny (as is often the case with drunk people) and some one is trying to cook.
The night before, a wave of people came in at 11:45 pm and proceeded to have an argument over how to run the extremely loud dishwasher, so they kept slamming down the industrial crank, letting it run it's 5 min cycle and then running it again. On the third slam (accentuated by very loud laughing) I decided it was enough. I went into the kitchen and very tactfully declared that people (ok, maybe just me) were trying to sleep. Shortly after, it became quiet and I lay awake until about 2am trying to coax myself back to sleep.
I discussed the situation with a few of the members of the late night party, which is much easier to do when they're sober the next day, however, it doesn't stick with them through the next night after too many drinks. At 1:30am, a group came in and headed directly into the kitchen. One girl tried to boil water but had to pee. After returning, there was plenty of banging around, laughing and talking. I banged on the wall a few times, heard my name mentioned (because even in their drunken state they remembered that there I was, on the other side of the wall, trying desperately to get just one night of quality sleep) followed by laughing and someone saying "ssshhhhhhh!". The cooking, talking and laughing continued. I knocked again. Again the "sshhhhh". A couple minutes later everyone dispersed with the exception of the girl trying to boil water. I lay awake and wished it was 5am so I could get up and start my day and say the hell with any attempt to get back to sleep.
We had our first roll of the season these last 2 weeks and by now I'm pretty sure the whole crew knows that I have insomnia. It was the talk of the assignment. When on the road, we share hotel (yes, hotels...no sleeping on the ground when it's 15 degrees outside) rooms. My roommate did not get the whole gist of it until a couple weeks ago when we snuggled into bed and had "the talk". She already knew that my sleep was often disrupted, I went to bed early and got up early. I'm fortunate to have such an understanding roommate, and a crew that is dry on assignments.
When I snuck around in the dark room at 5am, when our alarms were set for six, she would wake up and tell me to just turn on a light. I'm sure she didn't really mind, but I didn't want to be one of those people that deprived others of sleep. When I was wide awake at 3:30am, I certainly was not going to be that person. I learned to lay out my clothes and key card so I could sneak downstairs at 4am for a cup of coffee and to gather intel on the internet. She finally started setting her alarm for 5am because she knew I'd be up moving around by then.
One morning, I sat up in bed drinking a cup of coffee and heard her alarm go off. It was 5am. She turned it off and lay awake until the second alarm went off, a few minutes later. I asked if she was ready for the light. She turned it on and was shocked to see me sitting up drinking a cup of coffee. She later discussed it with my bathroom mate from back in Black Mountain who declared it "Creepy". It became the joke of the roll that I sat awake in the dark and watched my roommate sleep, perched up like a gargoyle. Not incredibly accurate. It's dark in there, I can't see a whole lot of anything. I just listen to her breathe.
In any case, once everyone is drunk and we're back home and don't have to share rooms (actually some peole do which must suck), people forget that other people have fragile sleep and don't truly understand how that feels. I'm sure from their experience, if some one wakes them up, they just roll over and go back to sleep. If some one wakes me up, I'm up for at least a couple hours if not for the rest of the day. Well, at 1:30am, the rest of the day is a long one.
Now it's 2:30am, the house is quiet except for the occasional movement of furniture upstairs and my stomach is rumbling. I don't know what it wants, maybe some sleep, maybe some food. I can tell right now that sleep is a ways away and it makes me want to take a blanket out to the front porch and curl up in a rocking chair but it may be far too cold for that. I wish people could truly understand what I go through on most nights just to be able to function the next day. I took a nap yesterday which ate up a good portion of my day and today may end up the same. I can't wait until the work week when I can get a decent night's sleep.
The night before, a wave of people came in at 11:45 pm and proceeded to have an argument over how to run the extremely loud dishwasher, so they kept slamming down the industrial crank, letting it run it's 5 min cycle and then running it again. On the third slam (accentuated by very loud laughing) I decided it was enough. I went into the kitchen and very tactfully declared that people (ok, maybe just me) were trying to sleep. Shortly after, it became quiet and I lay awake until about 2am trying to coax myself back to sleep.
I discussed the situation with a few of the members of the late night party, which is much easier to do when they're sober the next day, however, it doesn't stick with them through the next night after too many drinks. At 1:30am, a group came in and headed directly into the kitchen. One girl tried to boil water but had to pee. After returning, there was plenty of banging around, laughing and talking. I banged on the wall a few times, heard my name mentioned (because even in their drunken state they remembered that there I was, on the other side of the wall, trying desperately to get just one night of quality sleep) followed by laughing and someone saying "ssshhhhhhh!". The cooking, talking and laughing continued. I knocked again. Again the "sshhhhh". A couple minutes later everyone dispersed with the exception of the girl trying to boil water. I lay awake and wished it was 5am so I could get up and start my day and say the hell with any attempt to get back to sleep.
We had our first roll of the season these last 2 weeks and by now I'm pretty sure the whole crew knows that I have insomnia. It was the talk of the assignment. When on the road, we share hotel (yes, hotels...no sleeping on the ground when it's 15 degrees outside) rooms. My roommate did not get the whole gist of it until a couple weeks ago when we snuggled into bed and had "the talk". She already knew that my sleep was often disrupted, I went to bed early and got up early. I'm fortunate to have such an understanding roommate, and a crew that is dry on assignments.
When I snuck around in the dark room at 5am, when our alarms were set for six, she would wake up and tell me to just turn on a light. I'm sure she didn't really mind, but I didn't want to be one of those people that deprived others of sleep. When I was wide awake at 3:30am, I certainly was not going to be that person. I learned to lay out my clothes and key card so I could sneak downstairs at 4am for a cup of coffee and to gather intel on the internet. She finally started setting her alarm for 5am because she knew I'd be up moving around by then.
One morning, I sat up in bed drinking a cup of coffee and heard her alarm go off. It was 5am. She turned it off and lay awake until the second alarm went off, a few minutes later. I asked if she was ready for the light. She turned it on and was shocked to see me sitting up drinking a cup of coffee. She later discussed it with my bathroom mate from back in Black Mountain who declared it "Creepy". It became the joke of the roll that I sat awake in the dark and watched my roommate sleep, perched up like a gargoyle. Not incredibly accurate. It's dark in there, I can't see a whole lot of anything. I just listen to her breathe.
In any case, once everyone is drunk and we're back home and don't have to share rooms (actually some peole do which must suck), people forget that other people have fragile sleep and don't truly understand how that feels. I'm sure from their experience, if some one wakes them up, they just roll over and go back to sleep. If some one wakes me up, I'm up for at least a couple hours if not for the rest of the day. Well, at 1:30am, the rest of the day is a long one.
Now it's 2:30am, the house is quiet except for the occasional movement of furniture upstairs and my stomach is rumbling. I don't know what it wants, maybe some sleep, maybe some food. I can tell right now that sleep is a ways away and it makes me want to take a blanket out to the front porch and curl up in a rocking chair but it may be far too cold for that. I wish people could truly understand what I go through on most nights just to be able to function the next day. I took a nap yesterday which ate up a good portion of my day and today may end up the same. I can't wait until the work week when I can get a decent night's sleep.
Friday, February 3, 2012
First Assignment for the Winter Season
Well it's Friday night and in a house of 18 people (yep, I live with 17 other people) I'm the only one home. Yes, I've always been this lame, but tonight is a special night. I just got the crew turned over to me as I am the first one to go in the round of crew boss assignments. I'm now in charge of the entire crew and we just received an order to head out to the Croatan National Forest on the east coast of North Carolina. Right now the order is to help out with prescribed burning, but this time of year is also their fire season, so we will be there to help out if fires break out. However, we can also get called to fires anytime this weekend as well, which is one of the reasons I'm not joining in on the festivities.
We won't be leaving until Monday morning, but as always in this job, plans have a way of changing as soon as you think you've got them tied down. So tonight I'm working on gathering intel on the area and making sure I'm ready to go. I've made a list of questions for my supervisor, travel plans, finance code information, contact information, weather forecasts and things to remember while on assignment. In bold on top of my page reads "Food, shelter, and engaging work". That phrase sums up how to keep a hotshot happy. I've also got various notes and ideas scribbled on 4 seperate notepads and have attempted (in vain) to put them into one. I've made a list of things I need to accomplish this weekend before heading out, and things I need to buy. One of the more local guys dropped off his map depicting heli-spots on the forest, on his way out to the local Ale House. I've written down questions I intend to ask the guy in charge when we get to the Croatan.
For now I've put away all the maps, notes, the gps and my radio and will curl up in bed and continue reading "A Guide For Prescribed Fire in Southern Forests" which will hopefully enable me to better understand the assignment we're about to take on. Everything is different here. Fires burn differently, fuel (vegetation) types are different, soils are different, heck we even will see fire burn through swamps! What a sight that will be. Our crew structure is different, our vehicles are different. We travel in 6 pick-up trucks as opposed to the 2 buggies and 1 supt truck back home (and occasionally a chase truck but that may be going by the wayside). Our radio communications are slightly different. Oh, and they talk different. We don't say dinner down here, we say supper, and I was just fined another dollar tonight for saying "dinner".
Another major difference is that we'll spend more time in hotels than sleeping on the ground. This is new to me and it also presents new issues. Showers for example will be a new thing. Not that I've never showered before, I'm actually quite learned at the art of showering. However, showering on assignment is different. For example, we pack light, so my clothes will be dirty. But if I shower, I will be clean. And then I will put on dirty clothes in the morning. It's just unfathomable. But I can't just not shower because being in hotels, we will also be eating in restaurants and it is just not ok to be that dirty in public. It's different when you're just out in the woods and don't come across civilians for 14 days. I don't know, we'll see how that goes.
Staying in hotels also presents a sleep issue. For both myself and my roommate. Possibly more for my roommate. It's one thing to get up and roam around fire camp when you can't sleep, it's another to turn on a reading light in a hotel with your roommate right next to you who was sleeping. And it's harder to roam in a hotel at 2am. Less safe places to go.
Anyway, I could go on, but it's past my bedtime. Hopefully I will return with amazing news of my travels.
We won't be leaving until Monday morning, but as always in this job, plans have a way of changing as soon as you think you've got them tied down. So tonight I'm working on gathering intel on the area and making sure I'm ready to go. I've made a list of questions for my supervisor, travel plans, finance code information, contact information, weather forecasts and things to remember while on assignment. In bold on top of my page reads "Food, shelter, and engaging work". That phrase sums up how to keep a hotshot happy. I've also got various notes and ideas scribbled on 4 seperate notepads and have attempted (in vain) to put them into one. I've made a list of things I need to accomplish this weekend before heading out, and things I need to buy. One of the more local guys dropped off his map depicting heli-spots on the forest, on his way out to the local Ale House. I've written down questions I intend to ask the guy in charge when we get to the Croatan.
For now I've put away all the maps, notes, the gps and my radio and will curl up in bed and continue reading "A Guide For Prescribed Fire in Southern Forests" which will hopefully enable me to better understand the assignment we're about to take on. Everything is different here. Fires burn differently, fuel (vegetation) types are different, soils are different, heck we even will see fire burn through swamps! What a sight that will be. Our crew structure is different, our vehicles are different. We travel in 6 pick-up trucks as opposed to the 2 buggies and 1 supt truck back home (and occasionally a chase truck but that may be going by the wayside). Our radio communications are slightly different. Oh, and they talk different. We don't say dinner down here, we say supper, and I was just fined another dollar tonight for saying "dinner".
Another major difference is that we'll spend more time in hotels than sleeping on the ground. This is new to me and it also presents new issues. Showers for example will be a new thing. Not that I've never showered before, I'm actually quite learned at the art of showering. However, showering on assignment is different. For example, we pack light, so my clothes will be dirty. But if I shower, I will be clean. And then I will put on dirty clothes in the morning. It's just unfathomable. But I can't just not shower because being in hotels, we will also be eating in restaurants and it is just not ok to be that dirty in public. It's different when you're just out in the woods and don't come across civilians for 14 days. I don't know, we'll see how that goes.
Staying in hotels also presents a sleep issue. For both myself and my roommate. Possibly more for my roommate. It's one thing to get up and roam around fire camp when you can't sleep, it's another to turn on a reading light in a hotel with your roommate right next to you who was sleeping. And it's harder to roam in a hotel at 2am. Less safe places to go.
Anyway, I could go on, but it's past my bedtime. Hopefully I will return with amazing news of my travels.
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